Revue Encyclopedique. Par M. V. Cousin [pp. 358-377]

German and French Philosophy.
value, general interest, while it can produce something else,
Catholicism has long since brought forth negation, Protestantism; Protestantism is in travail to bring forth the new religion..........The new religion will be complete, for it will develope the end of that which is perfected; itself will be perfectible to the last object of the history of the world. It cannot be combatted and undermined by thought, by progress,
for it is the religion of thought, of the science of perfectionment, since its principal dogma will embrace all in this sublime truth, that God is in the world, and the world in God,
and that the life of the world is the life of God........... The
new religion will establish itself as the absolute religion, because it tends to realize in all its purity, in all its totality,
and in all its absolute harmony, the Truth, which is developed the preceding religions, in a manner concealed, fragmentary and even antagonist.
" We have given this work particular attention on account
of the importance it has in our estimation."
Such is French and German philosophy in the nineteenth
century, as blind as she ever was in Egypt, India or China;
as far from practical forms of truth as any barbarian tribe to
which we send our missionaries. Such are the sentiments
frequently expressed in the Revue Encyclopedique, and of
course prevalent among the most learned men in France.
We have given this long extract as calculated to make a definite, and as we believe, just impression in regard to the present condition of the French and German mind in many of its
most cultivated specimens. With them the Bible is the record of a religion, which, in its time and place, was good, at
least relatively so, but now to be classed with other relics of
the past; a child's book to be thrown aside by a generation
that has become men. With them all the light of the past
ages is eclipsed by the superior light of modern philosophy,
and that, although this same philosophy is yet unable to solve
the fundamental questions either of religion or human government. Light is coming; these men are confident it will come
out of modern philosophy; until its appearance we must walk
in darkness. They tell us the human mind never goes back,
but somewhere in its onward march will find a perfect religion and perfect state of society. Sensible that they have under their feet no solid ground, they make trial of every floating island, and imagine it a terra firma, till the next wind
of philosophical doctrine reaches them and sweeps away their
364